Citrus Juice: Green and Natural Catalyst for the Solvent-free Silica Supported Synthesis of β-Enaminones using Grindstone Technique

Aim and Objective: Citrus Juice as an efficient, cost-effective and green catalyst employed for one-pot synthesis of various beta-substituted enaminones through the reaction of beta-dicarbonyl compounds with different primary amines in a solvent-free conditions on silica gel as solid surface using grindstone technique in high yields and short reaction times. The presented procedure is operationally simple, practical and green. Material and Methods: The wide application of this procedure is demonstrated by the use of various substituted amines to react with beta-dicarbonyl compounds. The method was successfully applied for primary amines (15 entries) and the related enaminones were well synthesized in good to excellent yields. Melting points were measured on an Electro thermal 9100 apparatus. 1HNMR and 13C NMR spectra were recorded on a FTNMR BRUKER DRX 500 Avence spectrometer. Chemical shifts were given in ppm from TMS as internal references and CDCl3 was used as the solvent as well. The IR spectra were recorded on a Perkin Elmer FT-IR GX instrument. The chemicals used in this work were purchased from Merck and Fluka chemical companies. Results: Grinding synthesis of citrus juice catalyzed enamination of 1,3-dicarbonyls (acetylacetone, methyl and ethyl- 3-oxobutanoate) with various primary amines (aromatic and aliphatic) under solvent-free silica supported conditions was examined and studied (15 entries) and the obtained enaminones were well synthesized in good to excellent yields. Furthermore, the effect of various catalysts on the yield and reaction time for grinding synthesis of 3-phenylamino-but-2-enoic acid ethyl ester (1) by this method has evaluated as well. Conclusion: a novel, efficient and green protocol for the grinding synthesis of enaminones using citrus juice as natural catalyst has been presented. This methodology is user friendly, green and low cost procedure under mild reaction condition with faster reaction rates. The citrus juice is inexpensive and non-toxic which makes the process convenient, more economic and benign. Furthermore, applying grindstone technique in solvent-free conditions, use of silica gel as a solid and heterogeneous surface in reaction, high yields of products, cleaner reaction profiles, and availability of the reagents makes this method a better choice for synthetic chemists.